Article
Objects of Desire – Methodology for Film Analysis in the Sense of Peircean Semiotics and Intermedial Studies
This article aims at analyzing objects as signs of filmic aesthetic. Objects acquire several functions in films: Sometimes they are only scene objects or support a particular film style. Some objects are specially chosen to translate the characters’ interior or the directors’s aesthetical or even his ethical commitment with the narrative. In order to understand such functions and commitments this paper analyze objects of Wim Wenders’ films and apply an original systematic, which is based on Peircean semiotics and intermedial studies. This theme involves Cinema and Design, but it also embraces points of view of other disciplines, such as literature studies, history, psychology and sociology.
This paper discusses design process as a creative activity along with conceptual correlations of the semiotics developed by Charles Sanders Peirce. The central aim of this paper is to examine one of the most important concepts in Peirce’s theory related to design praxis: the concept of abduction. Abduction is the driving force behind creation and a way of producing new ideas. Peirce’s original concept is fundamental in order to maintain constant commitment to innovation required by design. To transmit messages in a creative way it is more efficient to intensely work with associations by similarity in order to obtain signs rich in information and analogies. Design communicates by all its constituent elements: shape, function, colour, material, technique, technology, etc. Therefore, signs of design share peculiar values of artistic signs as well as those of communicative ones. The associated information is as much aesthetic (shape) as it is semantic (content). The appropriation of Peircean concepts contributes to the understanding of the creative process, which in turn is crucial for understanding new possibilities by means of design.
Brazil and Germany have a "shared history" or shared stories that refer not only to the similarities and differences between the two countries, but also to cultural approaches between them despite the socio-cultural differences and geographical distance. Accordingly, the contributions in this volume highlight the German Brazilian relations in design, film, literature, and media. At the same time they discuss motivations, connections, comparisons and inspirations of these relations.
Under the rubrics of literature and music, two artistic forms of expression are brought together that have traditionally been connected, albeit not always in harmonious unity. In the spirit of the paragone, the competition between different art forms, in a number of historical aesthetics and poetics there is rather a competitive relationship between text and music, word and sound. Written in Dutch, English, and French and submitted by international scholars, the essays collected in this volume of Cahier voor Literatuurwetenschap - the book series sponsored by the Flemish Association of Literary Studies - address a range of issues outlining the contemporary shape of the interdisciplinary field of word and music studies.
Cinematic representations not only strongly influence our interpretation of history (Ferro 1992: 315), but are also important for understanding key aspects of Soviet disability policy. At the beginning of the twentieth century the new medium of cinema enjoyed immense popularity in many countries due to the efforts of commercial filmmakers to produce popular entertainment in the genres of melodrama, comedies and adventure stories. After the October Revolution in Russia, however, cinema was mainly used for education and propaganda (Lawton 1992: 2). Visual arts not only represented, but also contributed to, political discourses in Soviet society by using old and new imaginaries for classifying citizens. This chapter explores the ‘iconography’ of disability in Soviet film in order to reveal the shifting and contested meanings associated with the visual representation of disabled bodies
“Icon”, from Greek word eikón (image), is normally understood as idol, exponent, something representative, notable. In Semiotics from Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), the concept of “icon” is quite particular and it makes reference to a specific type of sign: one that represents its object through relations of similarity or analogy, taking some of its essential quality. The iconic sign is related to design so far as the icon maintains with its object a relation of quality. The icon, in saying about the object, says something of itself, some of its characteristics are present in the product. The constitution of the icon by the similarity between the demonstrative materialities of the product defines its formal-aesthetic character of transmitting information. While employing the expression “design icons”, we attempt to refer to both meanings described above. We will mention great names of design in Germany and in Brazil but we will especially think the products of design as objects-icons, i.e. with qualitative characteristics inherent of the icon. We will consider the context of Bauhaus, the school that first established design as discipline, passing by its practical and philosophical methods, which inspired design in the world. The article culminates in the approach to the relations that we find between the iconic sign and the product of design, as well as to the specific references to German and Brazilian designers, icons of design.
This article aims to analyze the objects as sign in the aesthetic context of the cinema, more specifically in the German film director Wim Wenders´ work. In the movies the objects translate the character´s interior, in a game which rules are based on the ethical-aesthetical commitment with the conceptual of the narrative. Therefore, we developed a specific methodology to make such analyses in the sense of Peircean semiotics and intermedial studies.
The article considers the Views of L. N. Tolstoy not only as a representative, but also as a accomplisher of the Enlightenment. A comparison of his philosophy with the ideas of Spinoza and Diderot made it possible to clarify some aspects of the transition to the unique Tolstoy’s religious and philosophical doctrine. The comparison of General and specific features of the three philosophers was subjected to a special analysis. Special attention is paid to the way of thinking, the relation to science and the specifics of the worldview by Tolstoy and Diderot. An important aspect is researched the contradiction between the way of thinking and the way of life of the three philosophers.
Tolstoy's transition from rational perception of life to its religious and existential bases is shown. Tolstoy gradually moves away from the idea of a natural man to the idea of a man, who living the commandments of Christ. Starting from the educational worldview, Tolstoy ended by creation of religious and philosophical doctrine, which were relevant for the 20th century.
The article is concerned with the notions of technology in essays of Ernst and Friedrich Georg Jünger. The special problem of the connection between technology and freedom is discussed in the broader context of the criticism of culture and technocracy discussion in the German intellectual history of the first half of the 20th century.